A large organization such as a large corporation may have many constituent entities, including divisions, groups, sectors, wholly and partially owned subsidiaries, local office units, etc. Moreover, each constituent entity may require IT products as part of the continuing operation thereof. Such IT products are many and varied, and for example include office furniture, office supplies, vehicles, raw materials, computer equipment, and computer software. Especially with regard to Information Technology (IT) services, such IT products can include specialized and standardized hardware, specialized and standardized software applications, technical support, technical management, and the like.
IT services are in general currently being consolidated from localized IT centers into more globalized IT centers. Such consolidation is good in that IT products and services are being provided for constituent entities of a single organization by one or a few IT centers, as opposed to a different IT center for each entity. Such consolidation is problematic, however, in that the uniform approach that an IT center may apply to a plurality of the entities in an organization may in fact satisfy none of the entities. Put another way, a single IT product may be developed by the IT center to perform an overall function for the plurality of entities, and the single IT product may in fact perform well under a given operating environment. However, if none of the plurality of entities in fact has such an operating environment, all of such entities are dissatisfied, and the single IT product is in fact less than optimal if not useless. Similarly, if the single IT product works marginally well for the overall needs of all of the plurality of entities yet does not work substantially well for any of the plurality of entities, all of such entities are again dissatisfied and the single IT product is again in fact less than optimal if not useless.
As an example, consider first and second entities within the organization that both require an IT product or service such as a piece of software that performs an accounting function. However, and importantly, the first entity (and not the second entity) requires that the software perform a specific interfacing function with another piece of software, and the second entity (and not the first entity) requires that the software perform a specific printing function with a specialized printer. If the first entity orders the IT product without any input from the second entity, the printing function will be missing and the IT product will be useless to the second entity. Likewise, if the second entity orders the IT product without any input from the first entity, the interfacing function will be missing and the IT product will be useless to the first entity. Worse yet, if a third entity orders the IT product without any input from the first or second entities, the printing function and interfacing function will be missing and the IT product will be useless to both the first and the second entities.
Accordingly, a need exists for a process for obtaining such IT products. In particular, a need exists for such a process that obtains an IT service for multiple entities within an organization such that the obtained IT service satisfies the needs of each entity. More generally, a need exists for a formalized approach to obtaining an IT service such that each entity within an organization is obligated to obtain an IT service in such formalized manner.